Hello!

I play bass and have been using an old Ampeg tube bass amp for a while now. It has awesome tone, but because it's old I want to buy a new, maybe sold-state amp so I can keep the old Ampeg safe at home.

Any opinions on what you all think would be a good buy? I need to go out and try the new Ampeg amps- do any of you out there own one?

Hey poptart!

I've found the Portabass to be a springy, lightweight, little gem in the Ampeg family. The 250 has some seriously solid punch, and on one of the combo models I believe the head is removeable so that you can use it as a combo or to drive an 8 ohm cabinet. It's a pretty solid buy. If you're looking for something more like what you're probably running right now, the SVT Classic remake is absolutely stellar in my opinion for crisp clear tube tone through and through. I'm just not sure if you need to be lugging around an 80lb head and cabinet or if a combo will do. Do you really need the tube tone?

That's your call. Let me know more if I can help!

Peace,
ShackMan

Hi ShackMan!

I will try the 250 that you recommend; I don't need the true tube tone- I'm willing to sacrifice having tubes for a lighter and maybe more versatile amp that I can take out to gigs without worry.

I will try one and let the forum know what I think. Thanks Shackman.

Hey guys,

I ended up trying a few of the amps at the shop and bought an Ampeg BA115HPT 1x15 220 watt bass combo amp. The thing rocks! Great tone and portable- I can choose the tube sound [from a real tube pre-amp] or one of the solid state sounds. A very versatile amplifier all in all.

Just thought I'd let everyone know. Thanks for your help!

I had a used B2R for many years, it never gave me any trouble, I think the new model now is the B2RE, I would recommend it, they are relatively inexpensive and a good value.

`

I use a PortaBass 250 head. Mostly
it lives in the practice room, but it
goes out now and then. At 14 lbs it
was a lightweight when I bought it
a few years ago. Now I have heads
that weigh half that, or even less.

It does have a cool feature for the
practice room: The parallel FX loop
is mixed with the main signal via a
balancer/fader/blender knob rather
than "added in" on top of the main
signal by a "level" knob ... or worse
yet just fed in full blast like on my
MarkBass. The blend thing is great
for home practice, cuz I just feed
recordings from band practice into
the "return" jack [the "send" jack
is not involved for this].

Even outside the practice situation,
this is very much like a 2 channel
amp with a blender instead of an
A/B switch .... cool or what ?

Sound is a lot like my old "Rocket
100" combo, depending acoarst on
the cab it's hooked to. And all the
controls are similar as well, which
makes me comfortable, and so it's
sometimes still worth that extra 8
lbs [+/-] over my newer heads.

OTOH I bleeb it's discontinued :-(


`

Cool. Now, the deal around here is: you review it,
and post a link to the review, and maybe you win
some funny money ! Click on "Music Gear Review"
[the logo at upper left, top of the page].

Unless, maybe you already posted the review, in
which case "thank you, and welcome aboard" !


`

I haven't used Ampeg for years -- and old SVT head -- but I recall the tome being great. Recently saw Tony Levin's Stickmen tour and both he and Michael Bernier were using the new SVT ministack (2x10) for the low end of their Sticks. Sounded great.